Tuesday, July 29, 2008

About 3 years ago, a documentary called "Sticks & Stones" ran on CBC's The Fifth Estate. It's best-known for a segment that reveals the rank hubris and stupidity of Ann Coulter, who insisted that Canada sent troops to VietNam:

(Can you say "braindead hosebag"?)

The program is lesser known for its revelation of the threats journalist Heather Mallick received after appearing on Bill O'Reilly's show, where she had the temerity to disagree with Bill-O about his threat to "shut down Canada's economy" because we didn't support the Iraq War. But the program's real focus was the political right's escalating language of hatred towards "liberals" and the "culture war" mentality being cultivated by right-wing media and pundits. Watch the whole thing:

and then tell me that, after 3 more years of this paranoid hateful hysteria, you're surprised to read that it's spiraled into something like this:

"An out-of-work truck driver accused of opening fire at a Unitarian church, killing two people, left behind a note suggesting that he targeted the congregation out of hatred for its liberal policies, including its acceptance of gays, authorities said Monday.

A four-page letter found in Jim D. Adkisson's small SUV indicated he intentionally targeted the Tennessee Valley Unitarian Universalist Church because, the police chief said, "he hated the liberal movement" and was upset with "liberals in general as well as gays.""